Users of all types of oral appliances such as orthodontic retainers, invisible braces, athletic mouth guards, night guards, sleep apnea devices, dentures, bridges, partial dentures and other removable oral appliances must clean their oral appliances regularly in order to avoid gum disease and other illnesses attributable to contamination by germs, dirt, decaying food and residue that can build up on oral appliances during and between uses. Users sometimes avoid cleaning, soaking, rinsing and/or wearing their oral appliances due to inconvenience, lack of time, lack of tools or because of an aversion to touching and handling their oral appliance as part of the cleaning process. Some youth and adolescents, as well as some adults, are embarrassed for others to see them handle and clean their oral appliance and therefore avoid proper care and usage of their appliance when traveling, visiting or when sharing a room with another person.
Thus, there is a need for an apparatus to speed and simplify the tasks of cleaning, soaking, rinsing, drying, storing and transporting oral appliances—while minimizing the amount of handling required and minimizing the number of tools associated with such tasks. There is also a need for an apparatus that enables even a lazy user to easily comply with the oral appliance care and usage instructions provided by the user's dental professional. Accordingly, it can be seen that needs exist for a discrete, integrated, compact and appealingly-designed apparatus for care and transport of an oral appliance that even adolescent users will not be embarrassed to use in the presence of another person. It is to the provision of an oral appliance cleaning and storage device meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.